More Champagne Beats January Blues

Go to P2.

A friend of mine’s wife gets really annoyed if I recommend wines over $15 (£10), not to mention my mates in the pub, so I’m expecting a lot of flack when they read this article! Why? The Champagne us Snoothers are about to chat about is $400 (£300). In case you’re wondering, that’s $400 a bottle, not a case! The wine? Moet et Chandon’s Dom Perignon P2 1996.

There’s Champagne and there’s Champagne. The bottle you and I pick off the shelf from time to time as we part with our $40 (25 quid) or so will probably be ‘Non Vintage’; that means that it’s a blend of several years’ grape harvests. If we push the boat out and splash $70 (£50) it’ll probably be vintage Champagne, a wine made from a single, exceptional year’s harvest. As you’ll see, the message is the better the fruit, the better the wine, the higher the price. So, for 300 quid you’ll be expecting amazing fruit and a phenomenal wine! The Dom Perignon P2 is somewhat OTT as we open our festive credit card bills but this exclusive bottle is on our shelves so at least we can talk about it…even if few of us can afford a glass never mind a bottle!

All the top Champagne Houses have a flagship vintage brand; Veuve Clicquot has La Grande Dame, Louis Roederer has Cristal, Taittinger has Comtes de Champagne and Moet et Chandon has Dom Perignon. These carry price tags between $130-180 (£100-150)…. so how come this Dom Perignon P2 1996 is $400 I hear you say. Good question! The answer stirs heated debate but Moet et Chandon winemaker Richard Geoffroy was confident about his prices as he presented the first ever ‘vertical P2 Tasting’ in London last year …. I felt honoured to be amongst a small band of the good and the glorious of the British Wine Trade invited on that sunny SW1 morning. I wouldn’t pay £300 for a bottle of wine but that said, such wines are the Rolls Royces and Bentleys of the Wine World so it’s no surprise that people who enjoy cruising in expensive motor cars may also revel in popping the cork of this vintage sparkler.

The ‘P’ stands for Plenitude, “the state of being full or complete” and when Moet apply it to their ‘DP’ it’s linked to the age of the wine and how long it’s been lying on it’s ‘lees’, that is, on the dead yeast cells that lie on the bottom of the cellared bottle after the completion of the second fermentation. Richard Geoffroy explained that in Moet-speak, P1 covers the younger DP vintages of say 2004, 2005 or 2006 whereas P2 is Dom Perignon that’s been ‘on the lees’ for between 15 and 20 years; we tasted 1998, 1996, 1995 and 1993. The 1996 was my favourite; toasty citrus flavours with a tight line of mouthwatering acidity and a long, complex, creamy yet edgey finish. P3 wines by the way will be between 30 and 40 years old; that’s a lot of long term cash tied up in the cellars, which goes some way in explaining the staggering price tag.

Although the P Plan prices scare me, I can understand the concept of letting a top Champagne develop to its full capacity; a P1 will have the depth, balance and harmony to be Dom Perignon but if kept on its lees will have the platform to produce P2’s and P3’s. Geoffroy explained that the lees are an excellent anti-oxidant for the wine, hence the freshness of all the P2’s on show. That said, 20 years is about the maximum lees contact period, “after 20 years there’s nothing more to gain”, Geoffroy explained.

Interestingly, the wines were poured in normal wine glasses and not flutes; a growing trend in Champagne and one that gets my vote, and has done for years. I was also pleased to see that Richard wasn’t decanting the Champagnes, “too harsh and more to loose than gain”, he thought.

For Snoothers who, like me can’t afford £300 for a bottle of wine, instead of P2 go2 Cremant de Bourgogne Blanc de Blancs (Chardonnay grapes only) from Burgundy, a Franciacorta from Italy or a Cava from Spain. They’re all made in exactly the same way as Champagne and, if you pay the extra quid (PTEQ!) can fight well above their weight. At about $18 (£14.00) the Cremant de Bourgogne is only just over the price tag that gets my friend’s wife hot under the collar. That said, when she reads about P2 you’ll see me go2 buy a tin hat!

Let's look at some fine, very fine Cavas. I'm not going to put prices as they will vary from country to country.
- Ars Collecta 456 Brut Gran Reserva from Codorniu (the most expensive cava, but
worth it)
- Casa Sala Brut Gran Reserva from Freixenet
- Brut Vintage from Segura Viudas
- Gran Juvé & Camps Brut Grand Reserva
- The entire Recaredo line
- Any Gramona cava
- Leopardi, Original 1887 or Ex-Vite from Llopart
- Grand Res or Más Vía from Mestres
- Bomboneta Brut Grand Reserva or Grandalla Grand Reserva from Jaume Giró i Giró
Plus several dozens more. Exceptional Cava can be found in the UK for around 30 quid and in the USA for around $40.